北京中小学生综合素质平台完整版英语专业八级翻译练习题

2021年1月17日发(作者：冷谦)




英语专业八级翻译练习题


1
．英译汉




（
1
）




Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the neighborhood

would have been Thoreau's idea of the low levels. The active discipline of heightening

one's perception of what is enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high.

What he saved from the low was time and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau

certainly disapproved of starvation, but he would put into feeding himself only as

much effort as would keep him functioning for more important efforts.

Effort is the gist of it. There is no happiness except as we take on life
-
engaging

difficulties. Short of the impossible, as Yeats put it, the satisfaction we get from a

lifetime depends on how high we choose our difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking in

something like the same terms when he spoke of The pleasure of taking pains. The

mortal flaw in the advertised version of happiness is in the fact that it purports to be

effortless.


We demand difficulty even in our games. We demand it because without

difficulty there can be no game. A game is a way of making something hard for the

fun of it. The rules of the game are an arbitrary imposition of difficulty. When

someone ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the rules. It is easier

to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to change the wholly arbitrary rules,

but the fun is in winning within the rules. No difficulty, no fun.



梭罗所理解的低层次，
即为了拥有而去拥有，
或与所 有的邻居明争暗斗而致拥有。
他心目中的高层次，
则是这样一种积极的人生戒律，
即要 使自己对自然界永恒之
物的感悟臻于完美。
对于他从低层次上节省下来的时间和精力，
他可将其致力于
对高层次的追求。
勿庸置疑，
梭罗不赞成忍饥挨饿，
但他在膳 食方面所投入的精
力仅果腹而已，只要可确保他能去从事更为重要的事务，他便别无所求。


殚精竭虑，
全力以赴，
便是其精髓所在。
除非我们愿意直面那些需 要我们全身心
投入的艰难困苦，
否则便不会有幸福可言。
正如叶芝所言，
除却 某些不可能的情
形，
我们于人生中所获取的满足皆取决于我们在多高的境界中选择我们所愿意面
对的艰难困苦。当罗伯特·弗罗斯特言及以苦为乐时，他内心所思，大体如此。
商业广告中所宣 扬的那种幸福观，
其致命的缺陷就在于这样一个事实，
即它宣称，
一切幸福皆唾手可得 ，不费吹灰之力。


即便于游戏之中，
我们也需要有艰难困苦。
我 们之所以需要它，
因为设若没有困
难，
便断无游戏可言。
游戏即是这样一种方 式，
为了享受其中的情趣而人为地使
事情变得不那么轻而易举。
游戏中的种种规则，< br>便是将困难武断地强加于人。
当
有人将情趣摧毁殆尽时，他总是因为拒不按游戏规则行事 而使然。这犹如下棋；


如果你随心所欲、
心血来潮地去更改那些全然武断 的游戏规则，
这样去赢棋当然
会更加容易。
但下棋的情趣则在于，
应在规则的 限定范围内赢取胜利。
一言以蔽
之，没有艰难，断无情趣。




（
2
）






In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons:

to extend the family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the

proper functioning of religious rituals involving the family. Such reasons may seem

thin in the modern, secularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in

other places.

In addition, one class of family reasons shares a border with the following

category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold

the husband or occupy the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the

number of children on the assumption that family happiness lies that way. The point is

underlined by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children (or males) is

a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce.

Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institution of

the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper

family
-
they need children to enrich the circle, to validate its family character, to

gather the redemptive influence of offspring. Children need the family, but the family

seems also to need children, as the social institution uniquely available, at least in

principle, for security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile,

world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more than one

person for sustenance and in generational extension.



在某些社会中，
人们希望拥有孩子是出于所谓的家庭原因：
传宗接代，
光宗耀祖，博取祖辈的欢心，
使那些涉及到整个家族的宗教仪式得以发挥其应有的作用。
此
类 原因在现代世俗化的社会中似显苍白，
但它们在其他地方曾一度构成并确实仍
在构成强有力的理 由。

此外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共通之处，这便
是：生儿育女是为着维系 或改善婚姻：能拴住丈夫或者使妻子不致于无所事事；
修复婚姻或为婚姻注入新的活力；多子多孙，以为 家庭幸福，惟系于此。这一点
更可因其相反情形而得以凸现：
在某些社会中，
无法生儿 育女
（或无法生育男孩）
于婚姻而言可构成一种威胁，
并可作为离婚的一个顺理成章的
（或现成的）
缘由。


除了所有这一切以外，
还有一个原 因，
那就是后代对于家庭这一体制本身所具有
的深远意义。对许多人来说，夫妇两人尚不足以构 成一个真正意义上的家庭
--
夫
妻需要孩子来丰富其两人小天地，
赋予该小天 地以真正意义上的家庭性质，
并从
子孙后代身上获取某种回报。


孩子需要家庭，
但家庭似乎也需要孩子。
作为一种社会体制，
家庭以其特有的方
式，
至少从原则上说，
可在一个变幻莫测、
常常是充满敌意的世界中让人从中获取某种安全、慰藉、保障，以及价值取向。于大多数人而言，这样的一个家庭基
础，
即使从 其表层意义上来讲，
也需要不至一个人来维持其存在，
并使其世代相


传，生生不息。




（
3
）




Though fond of many acquaintances, I desire an intimacy only with a few. The

Man in Black, whom I have often mentioned, is one whose friendship I could wish to

acquire, because he possesses my esteem. His manners, it is true, are tinctured with

some strange inconsistencies, and he may be justly termed a humorist in a nation of

humorists. Though he is generous even to profusion, he affects to be thought a

prodigy of parsimony and prudence; though his conversation be replete with the most

sordid and selfish maxims, his heart is dilated with the most unbounded love. I have



known him profess himself a man
-
hater, while his cheek was glowing with

compassion; and, while his looks were softened into pity, I have heard him use the

language of the most unbounded ill
-
nature. Some affect humanity and tenderness,

others boast of having such dispositions from Nature; but he is the only man I ever

knew who seemed ashamed of his natural benevolence. He takes as much pains to

hide his feelings, as any hypocrite would to conceal his indifference; but on every

unguarded moment the mask drops off, and reveals him to the most superficial

observer.



尽管我喜欢广交朋友，
但我只 愿与为数不多的几人成为至交。
我所提及的那位黑
衣男士，
就是那样一个我希冀与其成 为莫逆之交的人，
因为他深得我的景仰。
诚
然，
其行为举止不乏某些怪异的出 尔反尔，
他全然可被称为幽默家王国中的幽默
大师。
虽然他慷慨大方，
乃至奢 靡无度，
但他仍假惺惺地希望人们将其视作节俭
与审慎之奇才。
尽管其言谈之中满是污 秽和自私的格言，
其内心却充盈着最博大
无际的爱心。据我所知，他常宣称自己是人类憎恶者； 然而，他的脸庞上却总漾
溢着怜悯之情。
虽然其神情会柔化为一片慈悲，
我却听到过他 使用最为恶劣的言
辞，
其恶劣程度可谓无以复加。
有些人佯装人道与柔情，
也 有一些人则夸耀说这
样的秉性乃天性使然。
但在我所有认识的人当中，
唯有他似乎羞耻 于其与生俱有
的慈悲之心。
他会竭力掩饰其真情，
一如任何一个伪君子会掩饰其冷漠那 样。
然
则，
在每一个毫无防范的瞬间，
那戴着的假面具便会脱落下来，
使其毕露于哪怕
是最为肤浅的观察者。





（
4
）




The Reagan administration's most serious foreign policy problem surfaced near

the end of the president's second term. In 1987 Americans learned that the

administration had secretly sold arms to Iran in an attempt to win freedom for

American hostages held in Lebanon by radical organizations controlled by Iran's

Khomeini government. Investigation also revealed that funds from the arms sales had

been diverted to the Nicaraguan contras during a period when Congress had



prohibited such military aid.

The ensuing Iran
-
contra hearings before a joint House
-
Senate committee

examined issues of possible illegality as well as the broader question of defining

American foreign policy interests in the Middle East and Central America. In a larger

sense, the Iran
-
contra hearings, like the celebrated Senate Watergate hearings 14 years

earlier, addressed fundamental questions about the government's accountability to the

public, and the proper balance between the executive and legislative branches of

government.




里根政府最严重的对 外政策问题在总统第二任期行将结束之际浮出水面。
1987
年，
美国人得知里根政府 曾秘密向伊朗出售武器，
试图为那些美国人质换取人身
自由，
这些人质被伊朗霍梅尼政 府所控制的激进组织囚禁于黎巴嫩。
此外，
调查
也披露，这些武器交易中所得的款项被 转移到尼加拉瓜反政府武装组织的手里，
但在这一时期，美国国会早已禁止此类性质的军事援助。


随后所举行的参众两院联合委员会的有关伊朗
-
反政府武装组织事件听 证会审议
了有可能存在的非法问题，
以及对美国在中东和中美洲对外政策利益进行反政府
武装
-
伊朗界定这一更为广泛的问题。从某种较为宽泛的意义上说，有关．



所涉及到年前著名的参议员水门事件听证会那样，
14
的听证会 ，犹如组织事件
以及政府行政与立法部门之即政府应如何向公众负责，的都是某些根本性问题，

间如何才能达成某种恰如其分的平衡。



）
（
5


certain years, itself over the Although the American economy has transformed

issues have persisted since the early days of the republic. One is the continuing debate

over the proper role for government in what is basically a marketplace economy. An

economy based on free enterprise is generally characterized by private ownership and

initiative, with a relative absence of government involvement. However, government

economic that to ensure necessary from time to time found intervention has been

to abuses, prevent flagrant accessible to the people, to opportunities are fair and

dampen inflation and to stimulate growth.

Ever since colonial times, the government has been involved, to some extent, in

huge has example, made The federal government, for economic decision
-
making.

the programs that has provided social welfare investments in infrastructure, and it

private sector was unable or unwilling to provide. In a myriad of ways and over many

decades, the government has supported and promoted the development of agriculture.



但某些 问题自美国建国之初以来虽然美国经济在过去几年中已实现了转型，
其中
之一便是围绕着政府在 一个基本上属于市场一直持续至今，
依然悬而未决。
其性
质的经济中的恰当角色所展开 的持久争论。
以自由企业为基础的经济体制，
普遍
特征便是私有制和个人创新精神，政 府介入应相对微弱。然而，人们发现，能为
全部民众所获政府的干预时不时地也是必要的，
以确 保经济机会人人均等，
自殖
民地时得，并防范肆无忌惮的权力滥用，平抑通货膨胀，刺激经济增 长。


联邦政府曾在基础设例如，期以来，美国政府或多或少地参与到经济决策中来。